EU Governance and Politics

The emphasis on rule of law in the next EU budget framework (2021-2027) is a first step in addressing the risk of corruption in the Visegrad Four (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). It is likely that a soft coercive mechanism will be chosen in on-going negotiations due to its political soundness and will not be effective in targeting the corruption cycle as a whole.

On January 19th 2019, Matera’s cave-dwelling districts, better known as “Sassi”, opened up to national and international guests and musicians for the celebration of its title as 2019 European Capital of Culture (ECOC).

It became almost impossible to pretend that Hungary is still a democracy. The autocratic tendencies of Orban’s regime are difficult to counteract without strengthening the existent civic and political opposition that is being intimidated by the police state.

On the 4th of October 2017, the EU released its proposals for the change of the value added tax (VAT) rules, which included key reforms for cross-border trade between businesses in Member States. The initiative promised to decrease the EU VAT gap, in other words, the difference between expected VAT revenues and actual member state collections. While broad questions remain about the new system, the EU is convinced that the VAT fraud is to be reduced by 80% by 2022 thanks to the proposed reform.

During times of crisis or discontent, people’s political preferences tend to adjust from mostly centrist towards more extreme ends of the spectrum, be it either left or right. The European far-right has been on the rise over the last few years. Populists have gained ground across the continent and Euroscepticism seems to be thriving, even against a much bigger pro-European movement. The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) is the biggest political group in the European Parliament and has been a steady pro-European factor for years. However, its position could soon be compromised.